Turn Out The Lights.....

The party's over. They say all good things must end.
I don't know the rest of the song but it is fitting for the occasion.

Due to the weather, we ended up moving the whole thing over to my Dad's barn. It took three days to set up and all day Sunday to break down. Needless to say, we are tired.

 I could not have asked for a better turn out for Kylee. Somewhere between 60 and 70 people showed up with about 30 calling and cancelling. The weather had a lot to do with it.
Good people, good food and good fun.

 The band played Old Southern Rock and Old Country for most of the night. I can't thank these folks enough for coming out and doing what they did for her.

 We served smoked wild whole hog we caught a month or so back with several side dished cooked in dutch ovens and many others were cooked and refrigerated until eating time. We also had so many appetizers that I can't even remember what all they were. The stuffed peppers were the biggest. Folks were eating them right off the grill. 

 You can tell in this picture I am tired. My Dad started cooking around 6:00 AM and I finally got started around 7:30 AM

I finally called it a night close to midnight. Here it is Tuesday and I am still trying to recover.

This was my last big party I ever plan to host. Next month is the middle girls baby shower and all we are planning is finger foods and about 20 people. The women folk will stay inside and do whatever they do when the men folk that are dragged along will sit outside with me, around the fire, drinking a cold one. Now that sounds like fun.

Until next time,
Jerry

18 At Last

Tomorrow is my youngest girl Kylee's 18th birthday party.

This has been in the works for 18 years, to have the last one of our daughters become an adult. Candy and I are done raising kids.
That does not mean we are done being parents, it just means we have raised three great daughters the best we could and now it is up the them with little guidance from us. We are now in the advisory role you might say.

Kylee and I bonded early in life. She was my baby girl and always followed me around doing whatever I did. Her and her momma hardly saw eye to eye because Kylee knew all she had to do was bat her eyes at me and I would melt. I tried to always have Candy's back like a good husband and stand behind her decisions, but Kylee knew in the end I would have hers as well so she played it like that. I guess after being such a hard ass with the other two girls I wanted to try and be the good parent with this one. 
The thing about Kylee is, she can always make your bad day into a good one. She is someone who you want to be around because she is always trying to make you laugh and when she sees you need it, she will force you to hug her. There are days I don't want to be in a good mood, but she makes me. She is the sunshine in any room she goes into.

I have really enjoyed watching her grow up over the years even though it happen way too fast. It always does. It has been such a blessing to be her daddy, that part will never change. I only hope that one day when I am long gone she will be able to reach back in her memory and think of me and smile.

I love you Kylee and happy birthday. 

Cow Town Chili

Yesterday was a blast.

I cooked with my wife Candy and oldest daughter Jessie while the middle girl and some other family members came by for support.
Hannah is getting so big and I felt my grand daughter move for the first time yesterday. The grand baby thing is still a little weird to me, but I'm growing on the idea. I have finally come up with what I want to be called, Gpop. I know it sounds a little gangster, but what the hell.

There were seven of us all cooking together from our Pod. A Pod is a group of chili cooks inside the CASI (Chili Appreciation Society International) organization. There are Pods all over the US. All you have to do is find one near you by going to casichili.net and get involved and start cooking. You don't have to be a member of anything to cook chili, but it's better that you are, even if it's for support.

This cookoff was a big one, 133 cooks in all. Some came all the way from Illinois. I did the best out of our Pod by getting 21st and making final table. They called down to 22nd place so I just made it. That's not as good as I wanted but it is saying something. There were about ten ex-world champions cooking and they didn't make final table.
We could have cooked again today but the weather did not hold out. By turn in time yesterday it was raining cats and dogs. The winds picked up and it became just stupid to be out there. About 55 cooks stayed the night and are cooking today in 40 MPH winds, not me my friends. I am sitting here in the house fat, dry and happy.

Y'all have a great week.

Jerry 

I Have Fought Tougher

I got my butt kicked this last week, it put me down for seven days. I have fought tougher, but I can't

remember when. His name is, "The Flu"
Back in October I got my shot just for that reason, but a different type of flu found me out, type B.
It has been 15 years since I last called into work from being sick, now it's only been three days.
I was so careful though. It makes me wonder if all the things I was doing to keep from getting sick was worth it. 

Being I feel better and now back to work I plan to do some chili cooking this weekend at Cabela's in Ft. Worth. If anyone is around that way and wants to stop by, just look us up. Last year there were 160 cooks. This one is a good one to come out and get your feet wet if you ever wanted to cook.


Trying to knock the cobwebs out,

Jerry
 

Another Round Of Ice

This weekend cooking chili in Oklahoma was kinda nice. It was my birthday weekend and it was good to get away, even if it was for only a day and a half.

The thing about cooking competitively in Oklahoma is that I am from Texas. Everyone knows the rivalry between the two states and yes, it goes all the way down to chili cooking. There were four of us from Texas and twenty four of them. I have seen worse odds, but I can't remember when.
The chili was cooked and turned in and when they started calling the top ten, the first three were Okies. There were cheers and laughter, chest bumps and high fives, taunts and whistling all from that side of the room. Our side was quite, we only had four, talk about segregation, but we sat patiently. One guy even hollered across the room, "TAKE THAT TEXAS." I just gave him a thumbs up and waited.
Sixth place, Texas. Fourth place, Texas. First place show, Texas. First place chili, TEXAS.

There was no need to gloat, no need to hoot and holler, no need to jump up and run around the room with the Texas flag. We all knew this was going to happen. In the end I thanked them all for Oklahoma sucking so bad because if not, Texas would fall into the Gulf.  

We were planning on staying another night, but an ice storm was coming in. Last time we were away we got stuck out in West Texas and almost didn't make it back because of such a storm. Now if I was to be stranded somewhere in an ice storm, I sure don't want it to be Oklahoma so we headed back Saturday night.

The storm did come through and I was sure glad we made the decision to go back home early. All day

Sunday and Monday we were iced in with nothing to do. The wife got bored and made up another four dozen tamales. It's an all day process and I watched her from the couch. My only job was to keep the fire going and I did that well. If they gave a medal for the person who kept the fire going the best, I would have won first place.
She did a great job and now we have enough tamales to last a long time.



It's back to work today and now I am a year older, a little slower, a little dumber and a lot more fatter than I was only a year ago.    

See y'all down the road,
Jerry